after the final rose
by floatingwaterlily
Summary: When Stefan told Damon he was signing up for The Bachelor, Damon thought he was crazy. Who could actually find love that fast? Little did he know, he would soon find out. AU/AH


_A/N: Here's the Delena Bachelor AU that no one asked for! #TeamBecca_

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When Stefan asked Damon whether he thought signing up for a dating reality TV show was a good idea or not, Damon told him to go screw himself.

Stefan proceeded to book a season of The Bachelor. I mean who couldn't resist a broody beefy wealthy attorney, hero hair and all? Damon just wanted nothing to do with it.

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The producers wrangled Damon and his Uncle Zach to appear in the finale. What had previously been a pool of twenty-five women had been boiled down to two and now Stefan needed to decide who got the proposal. In the final episode, it was tradition for the family to meet the women and provide their feedback about who would be a good match. How riveting.

Damon would rather bash his head in with a hammer than contribute any of his time to trash TV, but Stefan didn't have any other family to turn to. Their mother had died of breast cancer while they were at a young age and their drunken waste of a father passed when they were still in high school. Uncle Zach stepped in to take care of them until they graduated high school, but neither of them got particularly close to him.

So Damon invited a camera crew to set up in his living room. He and Stefan lived together in what was called the Salvatore Mansion in quaint Mystic Falls, Virginia; aka the middle of nowhere. God help whichever poor girl got the ring.

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The first girl Stefan introduced to them was a blonde bombshell named Rebekah, who was a dental hygienist down in New Orleans. She was sexy, funny, and had way too much personality for Stefan to possibly handle.

When it came time for Damon to sit down with Rebekah, they had a very lukewarm conversation about her future with Stefan. Rebekah talked about how she had a big family down in New Orleans and was currently convincing Stefan to move down and be with her. Apparently Stefan and said he was open to it. Liar.

Rebekah droned on and on about how Stefan was such a good guy, how she came in a skeptic but actually found herself falling for Stefan, blah, blah, blah.

He just needed to meet one more girl tomorrow and then his brother duty was officially over with.

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Whatever expectation he had for how boring and shallow the next girl was going to be was blown to bits. The girl with the long straight brunette hair and big brown eyes took his breath away. She introduced herself as Elena, a freelance writer from New York. Elena was sweet and kind and genuine. It was no wonder why Stefan couldn't keep his eyes off her (Damon tried not to think too hard about why his eyes didn't seem to be doing much better).

Damon and Elena journeyed to the secluded library for their one-on-one conversation.

"Gone with the Wind, huh?" she remarked as she picked it right off of the shelf.

"Yup, one of my favorites. But don't tell anyone, I have a bad-boy reputation to protect," he replied, winking at her. He tried not to read to much into her blush.

"It's one of mine too," she quietly responded looking down.

"Well, you better get used to The Great Gatsby, the douchey-est classic of all time. My brother hasn't shut up about it since we were forced to read it in high school."

She laughed and they had a playful debate about classical literature, and which high school curriculum novels were actually trash. One of the producers shot him the stink-eye because none of this footage would be usable, but Damon could really care less.

Damon asked Elena about when she first realized that Stefan was actually someone she could see herself marrying. Elena recounted a story about her time in Paris, when it was the anniversary of her parent's death. She expressed just how sad and lonely she felt and how her date with Stefan completely distracted her. About how she could've never imagined herself falling in love on television and yet she had fallen hard and fast for his brother. How she felt her parents would be proud of her finally settling down.

"Sometimes, I can't even remember why I wanted to sign up for this experience at all. But now I'm here, completely in love," she said.

"It's because you want what everybody wants," he replied smoothly.

"Oh yeah, and what's that, mysterious bad-boy with all the answers?" she responded with a slight smirk.

"You want passion, adventure, and even a little bit of danger," he answered. Why he was getting flirty with his brother's girl in front of the cameras, he would never understand. But in that moment it felt like the rest of the world had fallen away, and it was just the two of them.

"And what do you want?" she asked. Now that caught him off guard. What did he want? He thought he knew, but suddenly he wasn't so sure. Before he had a chance to answer, a producer interrupted them and said it was time for her to move on to her conversation with Zach. They said their goodbyes and Damon was left wondering what the hell just happened.

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When it was time for Damon to recommend which girl Stefan should pick, Damon selfishly volunteered Rebekah. Ship Stefan off to New Orleans and become a shoulder for Elena to cry on? Win-win.

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Stefan picked Elena. I mean, of course he did. Of course Stefan was going to go the opposite direction Damon suggested, duh.

Damon wasn't even supposed to know. The show hadn't even premiered on television yet, and Stefan was supposed to keep his choice a secret, even from his family. But Stefan was about as subtle as a flying brick.

Right away he began gushing about how he can't wait for Elena to move in, for them to start their lives together. Damon offered to move out so he wouldn't cramp their newly-engaged style. Stefan told him not to worry, Elena said she liked him and that she wouldn't mind him being around (Damon tried not to psychoanalyze why that made his heart skip a beat).

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Damon decided to capitalized on his brother's poor life choices and turn his bar into a massive viewing party for the three hour (yes, three whole hours) premiere. Damon and his co-owner and best friend Alaric spent hours making up new cocktails with punny names. They even made drinks for some of the contestants (Damon came up with "Hurricane Elena" all on his own and won't apologize for it).

The promotion brought in a big crowd of middle-aged white women who came with the sole intention of judging all the new contestants and getting wasted. He considered the night a huge success.

One by one women would step out of the limo and meet Stefan for the first time. Some tried their hand at cheesy pick up lines, which the middle-age women would boo. Some women prepared a big romantic speech, which garnered awws from the tipsy crowd. Stefan looked uncomfortable as hell but he was obviously trying his best to be as polite and charming as possible.

Finally, it was Elena's turn to step out of the limo. Damon tried not to drool as she strolled over to Stefan in her long sexy red gown. Her hair was slightly curled this time, flowing gracefully over her shoulders. She looked so nervous, her voice shaking as she told Stefan how excited she was to get to know him and go on this journey with him. Damon had never been more jealous of Stefan in his entire life.

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The viewing parties at his bar, The Crow, continued to be a license to print money. However, Alaric would have to take over for the event on finale night, as Damon was going to join a live-studio audience to see Stefan and Elena as a couple for the first time in public. Barf.

He and his Uncle Zach were seated next to each other, a camera not far away if they needed to get any reaction shots of them. The night would be a test in self-control for Damon. He didn't think the millions of people watching would be very supportive of Damon's rolling eyes at his brother's cheesy lines (or heart eyes for his brother's girl).

The host of the show, some non-threatening tuxedo-wearing man named Chris with a precarious receding hairline, started the show off with a promise of the most dramatic finale ever. The first footage they showed was of Damon and Uncle Zach meeting Rebekah. The audience seemed to enjoy the interaction, even laughing when Damon makes some snarky wise-crack about being the better brother. In minutes, #BetterBrother started to trend worldwide on social media, much to Damon's distaste. In that moment he wished he had had the balls to tell his brother he wasn't going to be a part of his little fifteen minutes of fame.

He could barely even watch the private conversation he had with Elena. They cut all the flirty parts out, but he still remembered them word for word, scorched onto his brain forever. Ugh.

The show continued with the final dates Stefan had with each of the women, which were boring and repetitive. Are you ready to get married? Can you see yourself moving your life to be with me? The fact that Stefan was asking these questions after dating these women for just three months made Damon scoff. But he admired that Stefan had ended things with Rebekah before she had to go to the proposal ceremony, knowing he would just embarrass her by rejecting her in front of millions of people.

It was time for the big moment, when Elena would walk down the stone path to an elaborate set up for the romantic proposal. There was a table with a single rose, and a scenic view of the ocean behind a neatly dressed Stefan. The hero hair was greased and ready.

The only word that could describe how Elena looked in her long black lace gown as she stepped out of the SUV was stunning. She looked so nervous she was practically shaking her doe eyes filled with fear and doubt. She should know better, he thought to himself. How could anyone possibly say no to her?

She walked down the stone path and made an epic speech about how Stefan knew her better than anyone, how meeting him changed her life and blah blah, whatever. Stefan finally had the permission to tell her he loves her and then got down on one knee. Damon didn't even hear the words as he was nearly drowning in his own bitterness.

The night didn't end there, because Chris then introduced the new happy couple, public for the first time. Elena was beaming and showing off her gigantic new sparkly ring. Stefan gave a small smile, which for him was equivalent to jumping up and down in glee. They talked about how happy they were to finally be able to go out and be a real couple, how hard it had been to stay away from each other. They even hinted at wedding planning. Guess Stefan didn't want to waste any time. That bastard.

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Elena didn't officially move in until two weeks after finale night. Stefan and Elena had been doing press pretty much non-stop. When they finally got a break, they went to Elena's New York apartment and started packing up all her things.

Damon recognized the woman who drove the truck stuffed with Elena's belongings. He remembered her from the hometown episode where Elena brought Stefan to meet her family. Like Stefan, she only had a younger brother, Jeremy and her Aunt Jenna who had taken care of them after her parents passed away. Elena hadn't disclosed about how small her family really was until the day before they were supposed to visit. Elena had been so vulnerable telling Stefan the story about how when she was a teenager she had been in the car during a major accident that had killed her mother and father. It had been the most genuine moment he'd ever seen shared on all of reality TV. Damon wished he could've done something to shield that moment from voyeuristic eyes, but that's just how the business operated.

Aunt Jenna was very protective of Elena, trying to get as much information out of Damon as possible. What was his job? Why was he still living with his brother? Did he bring girls over on the regular? What would he do to any home invader threatening Elena?

It took awhile, but Damon got Jenna to loosen up and trust him. He couldn't blame her for being so protective, she had been a short car ride away from Elena most of her life, and now they were going to be many miles apart. But Damon assured her that Elena was in good hands with him and Stefan.

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Living with Stefan and Elena was the closest thing Damon had ever come to hell. The honeymoon phase was still going strong when Stefan had to get back to work. He'd never seen a morning routine more dramatic, with Stefan nearly brought to tears telling Elena how much he was going to miss her. A stranger would've thought he was going off to war, not five miles away to the office.

Elena, with no job, spent her days writing. She confessed to Damon that she was in the middle of writing a romantic short story, partly inspired by her experience on The Bachelor.

"If this damn thing ever gets published, God willing, should I use the attention from the show and use my real name? Or use a penname?" she asked him one morning after Stefan had left for work.

"Well, I'm definitely the wrong person to ask, but if you use your name it'll just turn into a headline where people pick it apart and try to figure out what's based on your life. Honestly? You're too talented for your story to get turned into tabloid trash," he responded, taking a sip of his coffee.

"How do you even know I'm talented?" she replied.

"I thought we'd already been through this. I've got all the answers," he responded. Her face turned a light shade of pink as he packed up his stuff and headed out to handle some paperwork at the bar.

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Now that the honeymoon phase began to slowly dissipate, Damon didn't think living with Elena is all that bad. They spent their mornings eating breakfast together after Stefan left for work, and in the evenings as Stefan was working on his documents, he and Elena read together in the library. On the outside, it was calm and peaceful. On the inside, Damon had never been more conflicted and confused.

One day Elena approached Damon and asked if he could teach her how to cook. He knew should say no. He knew this was all wrong, that he should've moved out the minute that they finished their very first conversation in the library.

Instead, he taught her how to make homemade spaghetti. The kitchen was a mess, she nearly burned the house down on three occasions, and he had marinara sauce dripping down his cheek. But dammit if her laugh didn't make it all worth it.

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One night, Damon was kept awake from screaming down stairs. He laid in bed, wishing he could disappear. He couldn't make out what either was saying, and he really didn't want to know. When Damon heard the loud crash of a plate smashing, he made up his mind.

Damon finally moved out.

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Living in the loft above The Crow wasn't horrible. Sure, it was a small space, but at least it didn't come with a front row seat to a fight of his brother and his new fiancé. Plus, he didn't have to live with the guilt of slowly falling for his brother's girl weighing down his shoulders.

That is, until Elena showed up at his bar near closing time.

"Are you guys still making the 'Hurricane Elena'?" she asked timidly.

He made her the drink and they fell back into their comfortable conversation. Elena looked completely exhausted.

"I miss seeing you around the house, you know?" she confessed.

"Thanks for saying that, but I'm sure you and Stefan are happy to have your love nest to yourself."

Elena sighed and suddenly the floodgates about how she really felt had opened. She talked about how isolated she felt, not knowing anyone in the area. She tried to get Stefan to go out to new places, but he'd been too busy. Not to mention that she hadn't really been fulfilling her new fiancé duties. Stefan had expected her to seamlessly fit into his life, to cook him meals and clean the house. But she had been a terrible cook, and not even lessons from Damon could change that. She expressed how she felt like Stefan was constantly trying to fix her, to turn her into the partner that he had always wanted. That maybe Stefan had fallen in love with television Elena, but she couldn't live up to that expectation.

Damon didn't know what to do. He wanted to punch his brother for making her feel this way, but he also felt guilty about having this conversation with Elena at all. He just wanted her to feel like Mystic Falls was home.

"What did you like to do in New York that you wish you could do here? I'm sure there's something fun we could find where you could meet people and distract yourself from the stress of your adjustment."

"Actually…yoga used to be my go-to for de-stressing. But I'm just too shy to go to classes by myself, you know?" she answered.

"Don't worry, I know a great yoga instructor around here. I'm sure she wouldn't mind us tagging along to one of her classes."

"Really? Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed giving him a hug from across the bar.

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Damon went to the yoga class with Elena, because he was an idiot. A regular at his bar and former fling turned friend Caroline Forbes allowed him and Elena to attend her class, as long as he provided dirty details of behind the scenes drama on The Bachelor.

Not only was the yoga extremely distracting with Elena's flexibility on full display right in front of him, it was actually hard. Damon liked to consider himself pretty fit, jogging a few times a week. But he did not expect to be that sore after one session. Of course Elena noticed and then relentlessly teased him about it for weeks afterwards.

Caroline couldn't resist going up to Elena after class and blabbing endlessly about The Bachelor and how much of a bitch one contestant was and how sweet and _epic_ she and Stefan were together. They ended up talking so long that the next class started trickling in, so Elena gave Caroline her number in case she had any dying questions about who she thought would be the next Bachelorette.

Damon was pretty proud of himself for actually finding Elena a friend.

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So their routine began: yoga in the morning, three times a week, and lunch at The Crow afterwards. Sometimes Caroline joined them, sometimes it was just the two of them. Damon even introduced her to Alaric, who Elena tried to set up with her Aunt Jenna.

"Maybe you should quit the whole writing thing and devote yourself to matchmaking. Hey, you could even take Chris' job" Damon jabbed while they were enjoying their burgers.

"Nah, I don't think I'm any authority in giving love advice," she said ominously. "Just trying to help my Aunt out. After everything she's done for me and my brother, she deserves to be happy."

The comment caught Damon a little by surprise. Shouldn't she be the queen of romance after living a real life fairytale in front of millions?

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During one of their routine lunches, Damon excused himself to the kitchen to fetch the special treat he had planned for the day. Facebook might be a stupid waste of time in his eyes, but it did remind him that today was Elena's birthday.

Damon reentered the bar area carrying a red velvet cupcake with a single lit candle on top.

"Congrats on making it 25! Only a few more years until we'll have to cart you away to the old folk's home!"

Elena smiled wide and eagerly blew out the candle. Damon didn't ask why her eyes had filled with unshed tears.

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On the anniversary of their mother's death, Damon and Stefan went together to visit their mother's grave.

"Do you ever wonder if Mom would be proud of us?" Stefan asked.

"This doesn't need to be a Hallmark moment, Stefan. But yeah, I'm sure Mom would be super proud of raising a reality star hunk," Damon replied sarcastically.

"This is serious, Damon. Don't you ever just stop and think about how you're not the man she wanted us to be? That if she were alive she'd be so ashamed?"

Damon left without any further comment.

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"We didn't even make it six months. Here I was, making bold statements about wedding planning, and we couldn't even make it to the half a year milestone. I'm such an idiot."

Two weeks ago, Stefan had called it off. Elena had known the end was coming for a while now, but she never had the courage to end it herself. She packed up her stuff and then moved in with Caroline, who needed the roommate to help with her expenses anyway. Now she was here, sulking with Damon at his bar after closing.

"Hey, you don't have to prove anything," he consoled.

"I just wanted that perfect life so badly. When I was on the show everything was just so…amazing. It was like a fantasy," she explained. "But then it ended, and reality set in. I just didn't…fit into his life, I guess. I can't be who he wants me to be."

"None of this is your fault, Elena."

"If only that were true," she whispered. They sat there in silence for a few moments, Damon patiently waiting for Elena to speak up again. "It all got messed up so fast. I just felt so alone, so that was my excuse. Our companionship just seemed special to me because I had no one else to talk to. But then I made other friends and started having my own life and still… I found myself wishing I was around you all the time. I knew it was wrong, that I shouldn't feel the way that I do, but I couldn't stop myself. It just…consumed me."

Damon froze. He couldn't believe what he was hearing…is she really saying…?

"I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here, Damon. I was so lost, but being with you…I just knew I was going to be okay. I'm so sorry, I understand if you never want to see me again…"

"Don't," Damon suddenly interrupted. "Don't ever apologize for how you feel. Before I met you, I thought all this love at first sight, true love nonsense was all bullshit. But from the moment I first set eyes on you, I knew I was a goner. And I know that this is messy and complicated but...it's real, Elena." Damon grabbed her hand and held it tightly in his. She finally met his eyes, hers were filled with tears.

"You're one of the most amazing people I've ever met," Damon continued. "It feels like I've known you for all my life and when we're together, it feels like we can conquer the world. And when we're apart all I can do is think about the next time I'm going to see you…let's do this Elena. It'll be a mess, but I feel like if we don't do this, we'll lose something special."

Without saying a word, Elena leaned in and crashed her lips into his. There were no cameras, no sunsets, no tender musical score in the background, and certainly no roses. But damn him if it wasn't the most romantic scene he'd live to see.

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They told Stefan first, before any of the magazines could leak it. He was so angry he threw a table. Elena started crying. Damon suggested that they give themselves space to cool down.

Damon drove Elena to Caroline's apartment. Before letting her out of the car he offered her an out.

"If you think it sucks telling Stefan, imagine that times millions of strangers," Damon warned grimly.

Elena gave Damon a small smile and clasped her hand over his on the gearshift.

"I know what I signed up for, Damon. And I'm all in."

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The magazines and tabloids called her every name in the book. Social media went wild. The #BetterBrother hashtag was reborn temporarily, filled with both funny reactions and serious threats.

Damon and Elena read none of it.

Instead they took things slow. Tortoise pace slow. They went to fancy art movies, ate at Italian restaurants and observed meteor showers. They also had nights in at Damon's loft, Elena writing her story while Damon read peacefully. One night Elena wanted to retry her attempt at mastering the kitchen, this time baking. Suffice to say that they burned the brownies, but Damon came prepared with backup ice cream in the fridge.

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America sympathized with Stefan so much that The Bachelor decided to give him another season. Stefan was finally ready to move on.

One of the final two girls that season was an event planner named Katherine, who was practically Elena's doppelganger. However, Stefan gave his second proposal to a fellow Virginia native, Valerie.

Their engagement lasted two months shorter than Stefan's previous one. Stefan wasn't too heartbroken, though, after getting an earful from a Bachelor super-fan and yoga instructor extraordinaire Caroline Forbes. Who would've known that true love had been in front of your very eyes the entire time?

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Elena brought Damon over to New York for the first time that Christmas. They even decided to drag Alaric along, considering he had no family to spend the holiday with, and they couldn't let him be alone. Lucky for Damon, Alaric actually proved to be a useful distraction to the fiery Aunt Jenna who certainly had some opinions about Elena's change of heart. But at the end of the day, the most important thing she cared about was Elena's happiness. She hadn't seen her niece smile as much as she had that holiday since her parents had died, so she eventually after much grumbling gave them her blessing.

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Elena had decided to extend her short story into a full length novel. She spent many days at the bar, furiously typing away as drunk customers prattled on. Sometimes, drinking actually helped the words flow better. Other times, it was just unreadable gibberish that she and Damon would laugh over.

Since today was her birthday (time really flew by), she decided to give the writing a rest and indulge in some Hurricane Elenas. She was feeling pleasantly buzzed when Damon declared that he had something special for her. She tried to convince him that whatever it was, it was too much, but he had already disappeared to the backroom. He had instructed her to close her eyes and not to open them until he gave the okay.

"Alright, Lena," he said. "You can open your eyes now."

In front of her was her devilishly handsome boyfriend, holding a single red rose. However, this rose had a string holding a key tied around it.

"Elena Gilbert," he stated in faux-seriousness, "Will you accept this rose?"

A large grin stretched across her face.

"Of course I will," she replied as she reached out and sealed her promise with a kiss.

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 _Thanks for reading, feel free to let me know your thoughts and review!_


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